Of Gods and Outlaws
by Marilyn Cane
Summary: "She vaguely wonders what the mayor and city workers will think if they ever discover this place. It doesn't look so abandoned now, though it certainly doesn't look like a library either." AU.
1. Prologue: Blur the Line of Now and Then

Yeah...I really have no idea where this idea came from. AU.

Main Characters: Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Nico, Luke, Piper, Jason, Leo, Reyna, Mr. and Mrs. Chase (prologue only)

Pairing(s): Um...vote. I'll take the first few suggestions and add an unofficial poll. It's starting out as canon, but I've always been okay with break-ups.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Rick Riordon. I'm just having a little fun. : D Enjoy!

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**Prologue: Blur the Line of Now and Then**

On the corner of Foster and Coney Island, a man struggles to light his cigarette, hating the small matchstick in his hand. It's late, some time around eleven at least, but this is Brooklyn and he's not the only one standing out on the cold. A little ways down Foster, a boy and girl stand close to each other, bracing the cold together. They remind the man of his first girlfriend, how they sneaked out of their houses in the middle of the night to meet up at the beach and sit on the wooden table. He smiles when the girl laughs, the sound small from so far down the street. Then cold December wind shakes her blonde curls and realization makes nostalgia sink in deeply.

His daughter had light blonde hair like the girl's and wide, wide grey eyes. He wonders briefly where she is now, if she's happy and well and safe. If she ever fell in love the way he did at seventeen, the way the couple down street are. If she still smiles with dimples on each cheek and if her nose scrunches when she gets angry. He loved his little girl, still does even after these years, and the two cuddling is painful to watch. Some nights he still dreams of her pale face fading into the darkness of the trees and when he wakes up, he thinks that if she'd just waited one more day - a few more hours - maybe this would've different. If she'd stayed, maybe it would've her picking him up for this board meeting, his Lucy in the seat supervising her first day with a permit.

Today is her sixteenth birthday.

From down the street, he hears the girl cry, "Percy!" before she breaks down laughing, holding the dark haired boy tightly around the middle. He can't see either of their faces very well, but her coat is the same color of his lost daughter's eyes. She says, "You're missing the point. It needs to be on time."

"Aw, c'mon," he says, "it's like fourteen minutes. All of you got me like six hours late."

"Percy, that's because it was six in the morning on a Saturday." Though he can't see his face, he imagines the boy smiles. "Noon was the first time all of us were coherent."

"And the year before that -"

Again, the girl laughs. "True, maybe ten at night was overkill."

He waits for five minutes, trying not to eavesdrop but failing terribly, and wonders for a moment if he should walk by, try to take a look at the girl's face. But he shoots that idea down because this is her birthday and the anniversary of her disappearance and the chances of her being his baby girl are slim. Today just makes him sad, that's all.

"The bus is late," the boy says. "Why's the bus always late?"

"Because this is Brooklyn at night," the girl answers, rocking back and forth on her feet. Neither notice him. "I _promised _Grover we'd be there on time."

The boy shrugs. "He was late to Luke's last year. And Leo almost completely missed mine."

"Yeah, but he's Leo. And I'm me."

"Oh, yes," says the boy with an edge of mocking, "Miss Punctual."

"Hey!"

The man finishes his cigarette and drops it to the ground, putting it out with his shoe. His Lucy is coming to pick him up, drive him back to Upper State, his boys most likely in the backseat. They'll be fighting, of course, because that's what all boys do, and his daughter was a fighter too because she had too much of his ex-girlfriend in her. Maybe that's where she is now, with her mother and new friends and possibly a boyfriend too, celebrating her sixteenth birthday in a way he never could've. If she still lived at home where she belonged, she'd go to high school in Hamminock Regional and take architecture classes. His memories of her now are faint after nine years and a head injury, her appearance solidified through photographs and his mental images blurry but real. But the books - he remembers those clearly. Seven-years-old and already reading Sullivan and Burnham and Wright. His little genius, he used to call her.

"Ten minutes," says the girl. "The bus better hurry up."

"Who's impatient now, wise girl?"

"Shut up, seaweed brain."

Then he whispers something to her and their voices lower to unintelligible murmurs. For nine minutes he stands there against the street lamp, listening and watching and trying to look as if he's doing neither before the little red car goes comes around the corner, stopping in front him. His boys are in the back arguing over who gets shotgun tomorrow morning on the way to basketball practice.

"Hello, Fred, dear," says his wife, giving him a kiss as he gets in. On the clock, the time changes from _11__:17 _to _11__:18_, and he pulls the car door shut tight behind him. Then she sees the couple down the street and says, "Oh, dear God! Is that -?"

As he shakes his head, his sons in the back fall silent, confused. "No," he says gently, "but she really does look an awful lot like her."

"But her -"

"Let's go, Lucky. I've had a hard day."

And he misses it when the boy breaks out into an off-key rendition of _Happy Birthday to __You _and the whispered "Annabeth" that follows the song.

.

Lucy Chase never loved her stepdaughter, but she loves her husband and can't get the image of the dark haired boy with the bright green eyes and his arms wrapped around the small waist of his girlfriend out of her mind. Now she sits across from a teary-eyed woman who clutches a few tissues tightly in her hands, too distracted to fell sympathy. She speaks with a slight Italian accent and looks younger than she stated. And her story hits a little too close to home.

She says, "Let me go over this again: you think you saw your dead son?"

"I know it sounds mad," answers the woman, sniffling and dabbing her eyes, "but it's true. I was in Central Park this morning for a walk -" She chokes and lets out a soft sob before continuing, "and I saw him with a group of other people - a few years older, yes, but he hasn't changed."

When she became a detective twenty years ago, she hadn't anticipated the sort of cases she'd get assigned would be prominently runaway related. It's because I'm a woman, she tells herself every time, and besides, those cop shows are glamorized anyway. Regardless, she finds her thoughts straying back to his husband's daughter and the young couple on the street and decides not for the first time that she needs a new job. "What's his name and how old would be be now?" she asks.

"Nico di Angelo," the woman says, and she writes this down. "He'd be fourteen now. He left seven years ago."

For a moment, she pauses, letting a shiver run through her because her her stepdaughter left at seven, too, and she doesn't like similarities. Though she may not love the girl, she doesn't like the idea of a child being out there all on her own, and unless the girl found her mom, she doubts she survived. "Right," she says and glances at the last known photograph of Nico and a girl. "His older sister?" she adds, pointing with the end of her pen.

The woman nods and lets out another small sob. "Bianca," she says. "She...Nico left after she died."

"And where's his father?"

"I'm not sure, but I've always hoped Nico found him somehow."

Her husband says the thing on the days he thinks of his daughter: _I hope she found her mother, Lucy. _

"Are you married?" she asks, and the woman shakes her head. "I'm sorry, but I have another appointment. I'll begin my search today, and call you when something comes up."

Again, the woman nods and stands, unsteady on her feet. Before she leaves, she adds, "Do you have children, Mrs. Chase?"

"Yes," she says and turns around the picture of the family so her client can see it, keeping her fast straight. "Matt and Bobby."

"I hope your luck is better than mine."

With a sad sort of smile, Maria di Angelo exits, shutting the door gently behind her. Sighing, Lucy pulls her stack of folders from her desk drawer and spreads them out, looking at the pictures clipped inside. Few of her cases are recent disappearances, and she can't understand it. If her sons ever disappeared, she'd start looking the moment she heard and search until she found them. Not like the May Castellan who waited nine years, or her husband who stopped looking before a search could really start. And as horrible as it is, she's glad he gave up so early because she can't stand the thought of seeing the poor girl again. If she came back, Lucy would need to hear again about how she looks _so_ much like his ex-girlfriend, how she's _so _perfect because she's brilliant and beautiful and clever just like her -

Since she's the better the woman, the one who doesn't leave a child alone without explanation, who cared for this other mother's daughter despite how little she loved the girl, she has no reason to be jealous. In the end, she's Fred's wife, the one who sees him in when she wakes up and before she falls asleep and doesn't abandon her children without reason, and for that alone she shouldn't fault her lost stepdaughter. Everyone remembers their first love, and she was just unfortunate enough to marry a man with his own personal reminder.

Her eyes settle on a photo tucked inside the folder labeled _Percy __Jackson_, filled with the findings of a two year long case submitted by the boy's stepfather years ago. The boy's young, only eleven, but age hadn't changed the color of his eyes. They're bright and green, shadowed by black bangs, and the frozen gaze goes straight through her. Behind him is the blurry outline of a girl with her head turned to the side, but the shirt she wears is a pajama shirt that went missing years ago from her stepdaughter's room without explanation. Numb with shock, she reaches for her cell phone on the table and dials her husband's number.

"_What is it_?" he asks, and she doesn't care that he's in class. "_Is something the matter_?"

She answers, "Last night...did you hear the boy's name at all?""

"_I think the girl said Percy. Why_?"

"Fred, dear," she says, voice shaking, "I think I found Annabeth."

The silence hurts.

.

Written in an hour! Yay!

Anyway, so, this is really short, but it's the prologue, so I guess it makes sense, you know? Next chapters will be longer because more will be going on and whatnot. This is the only part of the story that'll be told in the point of view of any other character than the ones listened above (and I'm not even sure of them will be used, either). Hope you enjoyed!

Review please. They make me happy. ^^


	2. One: February in Brooklyn

Hi, again, people! Thank you so much for favorite/alerting/reviewing it. To be honest, I've had this idea for a long time, but my old netbook stopped charging abruptly (the first day of spring break) so I had to wait until I got a new one. ^^

Anyway, do you guys want me to keep them demigods? The story will stay the same, of course, there'll just be no Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter. I have an idea how to make it work, but I can also make it work without it, so I'd like to hear your feedback. =] And on the pairings.

Note: Because I live like an hour from the City and go there all the time, the majority of the places I mention are real (for later chapters).

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Rick Riordon.

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**Chapter One: February in Brooklyn**

Weekday afternoons, after the high schools let out, Percy and some of the others meet up in Central Park, where there are tourists and businessmen in expensive suits out for their lunch break and everyone keeps their money in bags or pockets. They make more moneys on school days than Saturday or Sunday despite there being a greater influx of people. This Monday it's him and five others and though he and Thalia are completely useless in the grand scheme, they work well as look outs. Luke's their best thief, Piper their best conman, Leo the best distraction, and Annabeth's better than all of them at pegging who's good for what. He loves his girlfriend, but on pay days (as they call it) she makes him feel like a complete idiot.

"Nico needs new shoes," Thalia says, taking a bite of her the pasta sandwich they bought at the entrance of the park, "and I'm pretty sure we all need new jackets. Anna's is falling apart."

Percy nods and picks at a fray on his jeans, watching Leo talk adamantly to some guy in the street while Luke casually counts the money from his wallet behind him. Apparently he found out early on that it took a person longer to notice the theft if the wallet was returned with a few dollars still left inside. "We'll be fine," he says, looking away from them to search for Annabeth. He finds her sitting with Piper on a bench further down the path, whispering in the girl's ear. "I mean, we have more money than the average school kid, you know?"

His friend frowns. "I guess. Just, you know, the City's getting more expensive."

"I think the problem's more the governor's sudden interest in abandoned buildings," he says and adjusts the wool hat on his head. Though this winter isn't as bad as the past couple of years', it's still pretty cold. According to the Time & Temperature outside of the national bank, it's twenty-two degrees. "If he finds the library, we're fucked."

With a sigh, she says, "Luke and I talked about this the other day. We're turning eighteen soon and maybe we could find out a way to get us all a legal residence. It's not like we don't make the money."

"Wouldn't you need a job anyway?" She shrugs. "Besides, I think it'd look pretty suspicious."

"Just an idea." She pauses, then adds, "Want the rest of my sandwich?"

He accepts the pasta sandwich without much thought, distracted by Piper standing up and jumping into a conversation with some tourists. "Where would we go anyway?" he asks, and again, she shrugs. No one pays attention to them, walking back and forth, chatting, and it's a good thing to become part of the scenery. "We'll hear about them doing anything to the library before it happens anyway."

Thalia crosses her arms and leans back against the bench, though he can't figure out why she's acting so sulky. "Where would we go?" she repeats, eyebrows creasing. "I dunno. But I don't want to be here anymore."

"Where? New York?"

She shakes her head. "Just_ here_," she answers. "I can't explain it. I've got a bad feeling about something."

Percy bites his lip, not sure what to say. "You aren't going to leave us, right, Thal?"

"No," she says firmly. "If I go anywhere, you guys are coming with me. And if we can't, then we're staying here."

Since this is the annoyingly stubborn Thalia Grace, he doesn't doubt her. "We'll figure something out," he says. "We -"

He's cut off by Nico coming out of nowhere, Jason behind him, a newspaper clutched in his hand. Percy doesn't like the way he looks: pale, eyes widened, small body shaking. "There you are," he says and shoves the paper and he and Thalia. "L-look at it."

On the page is a black-and-white picture of seven-year-old Nico and the sister none of them ever met, the smile on his face wide and carefree. "What the -?" he starts, but Jason says, "We can't let Annabeth see this," before he can finish.

"Why?" asks Thalia, taking the paper out of Percy's hands and scanning the picture critically. "I thought your mom thinks you're dead."

"That's the thing," Jason says, taking over for the tongue-tied fourteen-year-old. "Somewhere in there it says that Maria di Angelo saw the son she thought was dead in the park yesterday, so a missing persons investigation is opening up. The detective in charge of the case, the one that people're supposed to contact, is Lucy Chase."

For a moment, no one says anything, and Percy lets the same sink in. _Lucy Chase. _Over the past few years he's been here, he's only heard a little about his girlfriend's family and none of it's been good.

Finally, Nico breaks the silence and says, "By park, Jason means Central Park. My mom saw me here and now every New Yorker who reads the paper's going to know who to look for."

"Look, it's been seven years and you look really different," Thalia says unconvincingly. Except for being a good foot and a half taller, he's barely changed and they all know it. Nico shuffles from foot to foot, eyes shooting around anxiously and Percy's damn happy that he never had to go through this. No one ever bothered to look for him. "Anyway," she adds uncertainly, "I think we should go. We won't tell Anna about her step-mom, but everyone else..."

"Yeah," Percy says and they stand, sandwich crumbs fall from their laps. Food for the birds, he thinks, even if it's out of place. He catches Luke's eye and gives a small nod. The older boy slips the wallet back in a woman's bag, pocketing the money himself, and grabs the back of Leo's collar, dragging him along. Annabeth and Piper join them a moment later. Once they're all together, he says, "Right. Okay, guys, we're heading back."

"Why?" Piper asks.

"We'll tell you when we get home," Jason tells her and the seven of them crowded together like this is starting to gain attention. This must've been what happened yesterday - it was Annabeth's birthday and everyone but she and him were here to figure out what they were doing.

And he must not be the only one who notices it, because Leo suddenly says, "Math class was brutal today, wasn't it?"

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Luke finds him on the roof a quarter to one, hidden in the shadow of the streetlights. He moves silently across the concrete ad sits next to him, uncharacteristically uncertain and worried. Though Annabeth, Reyna, or Piper would be better equipped for this, he knows he has to do it; Nico is the youngest and Luke is the oldest and this has to be their conversation.

For a moment, neither does anything. Then Nico says, "They're gonna catch me."

Though he feels like he's lying, Luke answers, "No one's going anywhere. We're family."

"If I get caught, so do you."

"You're not going to get caught."

Again, they fall silent. Luke isn't so good at the whole talking thing, and, if anything, Nico's worse. The streetlight on the corner flickers. Two days ago he and Thalia were talking about leaving - all of them - and now this. Must be fate or something, he thinks. With a sigh, he says, "Hey, I was put on Amber Alert a few weeks ago, too, and they haven't caught me, right? And Thalia and Piper've been on it for ages. Seriously, you'll be fine. And those are just the ones we know off."

"Yeah, but you all look completely different," Nico points out, running his hand through his black hair, making it stick up at odd angles. "I pretty much look the same. Just with all my teeth. And taller."

"There're eight million people in this city," he says, "and only one of you. We dress like high school students, so people think we're high school students. Trust me, the odds are slim."

"But Mom noticed me."

Another thing Luke isn't equipped to deal with: pessimism. Ever since he got away from his mom, he made it his goal in life to stay as optimistic as possible. "Look, Neeks, if the law starts getting too close, we'll skedaddle straight out of here, got it?"

The younger boy's gaze snaps to his face, eyes wide. "Really?"

"'Course." He doesn't mention that this was already a possibility. "We'll hold a vote or something for where to go, and then head there. It's not like we're lacking the money."

Nico looks at him doubtfully. "There're nine of us."

"I can count you know." He grinned widely and threw his arm around the younger boy's shoulders. "C'mon, Nico, we reap in like a thousand a day and barely spend any of it, so don't worry about it. If you're _really _worried about it that much, you just won't go into any shops or restaurants or Central Park or anything like that for about a week. We're in New York - everyone'll forget about you pretty damn soon."

"I guess you're right," he says cautiously, and Luke knows he's won him over. "C-can we go inside? I'm getting cold."

Luke stands, holding out his hand for Nico to grab it, and pulls the boy up. He's a good head and a half shorter than him, though his messy hair adds on an inch or two. "If need a few minutes alone where it's warm," he says awkwardly because he isn't Annabeth or Piper or Reyna or even Jason, really, "you can go chill in the cooking section. It's not like anyone ever goes over there."

"I'm fine," the kid tells him, and he's so far from fine that it's a little scary. "I think I just want to sleep."

With a nod, he says, "I'm going to stay up here for a while."

"Okay." After a moment's hesitation, he adds, "And thanks, Luke. Really."

Before Luke can answer, he leaves, disappearing down the hatch door, back to the library below. Then he starts shaking and sinks down again, and he hopes Nico doesn't come back up because he doesn't need anyone seeing him having an anxiety attack. And he's not even really afraid of the boy getting caught or them getting separated because as long as he's here, he's not letting it happen.

No, he's just afraid of the flashbacks coming back again, that's all.

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Thalia doesn't like snow. She discovered this early on in life.

Sunshine she's okay with, just like partially cloudy or miserably drizzly, and thunderstorms are her favorite. In New York during the summer and early fall, these are pretty common, but in winter it's all cold and snow. She likes to be prepared for snowy days, but she rarely gets the heads up. And it's not like she can ask for the weather to change to liking, though that would be pretty cool. Probably.

On Wednesday it snows, the flakes thick and wet and heavy and unpleasant. Snow days work for them the way it they work for anyone else - they get off from work. But unlike most normal people, this isn't enjoyable. Regardless of Nico's current danger status, she'd rather be sitting on that park bench with Percy, or getting a coffee in the nearby Starbucks than stuck inside the cold library, drinking hot chocolate. Though that helped, at least.

"It'll be gone by tomorrow," says Reyna, knees pulled up to her chest as she sits on one of the couches, eyes focused on the window. She's from Key West Florida and after her first year up north, the novelty of the snow wore off. Not she hates it about as much as Thalia, though she's a tad better at hiding it. "The one in October was."

"It also torn down power lines and screwed up highways," Leo points out. He pays attention to those sort of things, though everyone else could care less. Piper sits close to him, like his unnaturally high body temperature will help her warm up. They should invest in a new space heater; they only had one that heated up the sleeping area and it was steadily dying anyway. Even with that, though, she doesn't like the idea of spending money on one. Pointless, really.

Unless all else fails, they're leaving. She and Luke decided it months ago. The others just don't know it.

Percy says, "I want pizza," and Annabeth snuggles closer to him. Though the second oldest, she has no one to cuddle with and on days like this, that really gets to her.

"And M&Ms," Piper adds. "Maybe some Coke too."

Before anyone can declare it, Thalia puts her finger on her nose, quickly followed by the others. In the end, it's Leo who has to go, but that isn't such a tragedy - the cold doesn't bother him the way it does the rest of them. Still, that doesn't stop him from complaining. "C'mon," he says, scowling, "can't I bring Piper or something?"

"No," the girl says.

"But you can get it for free. And I won't have to carry everything."

"Carrying two pies and some M&Ms isn't so hard."

They bicker for a while, and end up comprising: they'll head down the street to a payphone and convince the guy to deliver for free to there. It'll probably take longer than if they walk, but Thalia doesn't point this out and no one else does either. Luke's practically asleep on her shoulder.

It takes half an hour for them to come back, and the seven of them spend the time discussing what movie they want to watch. A few years ago they bought a TV that doesn't have cable, but plays movies just fine. When they leave, it'll have to stay behind, and she vaguely wonders what the mayor and city workers will think if they ever discover this place. It doesn't look so abandoned now, though it certainly doesn't look like a library either. Around the time she, Luke, Nico, Percy, Jason, and Annabeth moved in, they tore out some of the stalls in the girl's bathroom and replaced it with a shower they made themselves and Leo later fixed, and for some reason the water bill was connected to the building down the street, so it was still running fine. There were three small, battery-operated refrigerators in the nonfiction section and desk lamps hidden in areas unseen from the windows. A general communal bedroom was set up in the old reading area, the old chairs were moved to what used to be the encyclopedia section, and a battery-powered stove sat next to a small table they put by the now-nonworking computers. All of these were placed out of view of the windows, though the glass was mostly covered up by heavy curtains that still made the place look occupied.

Thalia loves it.

"We got one pepperoni and one plain," Piper says as she and Leo sit down, setting the sodas, M&Ms, and pizza in the middle of their circle. Jason hits play for their movie and Thalia wonders why _Monty Python: Search for the Holy Grail_ is always their default pick. "And here's the candy."

Hot chocolate and M&M pizza doesn't mix, she discovers, and stick with a soda instead, even if this means she won't sleep tonight. The snow comes down harder outside, and she hears the first plow go down. By three, it looks like the middle of the night and Reyna shuts the curtain so they can turn on the lights. The streets are eerily silent for a Brooklyn night and she doesn't like it. Silence reminds of nights when she still lived at home, those days that her mom drank herself to unconsciousness and her brother was asleep on the other end of the house and the air was so still it didn't even feel real. On those nights she had nightmares of monsters under her bed - monsters with one eye or dragons with multiple heads that would never die and half the time she woke up screaming.

In the end, the caffeine rush ends and everyone's crashed by ten, which is despicable for a group of kids who don't attend school. But Thalia says awake, lying on her back and staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars she bought and put up ages ago, standing on top of bookshelves. Then she fell, landing on her back against a stack of books, and now she's hated heights ever since. Her brother teases her about it sometimes, and though it annoys her, she at least knows she's not the only one - Percy nearly had a panic attack the time Annabeth dragged him to the top of the Empire State Building.

Why does she want to get out of here so bad? she wonders. Those stars, that string of fairy lights, the giant stack of movies - this is home, and she loves it here. But she knows they've overstayed their welcome, that Nico's face in the paper is only beginning, and she'd rather run away than have to face the facts. That their life might fall apart. That someone might separate them. That she might have to watch these memories get torn down.

Europe, she decides, Greece maybe. Or Italy. Somewhere nice that never gets too cold, but not too hot either and yeah, the Mediterranean sounds pretty good. It won't be in a city either and maybe they could move near a university and she and Luke can go and a few of the others two because forging isn't really all that hard. That way they have an excuse to all live together in a rented house, though the currency exchange will be a nightmare. She hopes that they can hold their shit together long enough to make this work, and maybe she should tell them soon.

Eventually, sleep comes rushing in, and Thalia dreams, all she sees is miles and miles of gold.

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I want these chapters to be long. =/ Oh well, maybe it'll pick up soon. So, review and tell me if you want to me to keep these guys demigods, and potential pairings because...well, romance is fun.


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